With an update, WhatsApp will limit message forwarding to five, in its efforts to reduce misinformation and fake news, as reported the executives of the most popular instant messaging application. Until now, users could resend a message to up to 20 contacts. Now, however, in a measure that continues the one taken in July across India, Whats app limited message forwarding to five.
“We’re imposing a limit of five messages all over the world as of today,” explained Victoria Grand, vice-president for policy and communications at WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is the most popular instant messaging app on Android and iOS, totaling more than 1.5 billion users. Its popularity, however, also attracted some people to promote fake news and misinformation. WhatsApp acknowledged that and took some measures to tackle this trend. With an update, WhatsApp plans to limit message forwarding to five, trying to deal with misinformation and false rumors.
WhatsApp Update To Limit Message Forwarding to Reduce Misinformation
WhatsApp allows users to text their contacts, initiate voice calls and video calls, and share files such as images, videos, and documents, among others. It became popular in the last years, mainly thanks to the many improvements Facebook has implemented to the app since Zuckerberg’s company bought WhatsApp in 2014.
However, recently many scandals surrounded WhatsApp. In October 2018, during Brazil’s presidential election, Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right candidate, reportedly used WhatsApp to spread fake news regarding its direct opponent. Also, in early 2018, Indians used WhatsApp to share misinformation.
Due to the before-mentioned cases and other similar ones worldwide, WhatsApp executives decided to take stricter measures against WhatsApp use for spreading fake news and rumors. Accordingly, via a WhatsApp update, which started to roll out yesterday, the devs will limit message forwarding to only five in order to reduce misinformation and tackle fake news propaganda.
